Spokane film critic Robert Glatzer dies

Longtime Spokane film critic, advertising executive and arts advocate Robert Glatzer died today at the age of 78. Glatzer’s death followed a stroke he suffered earlier this week.

Glatzer came to Spokane in 1973 and served as director of the Expo 74 Folklife Festival.

Following the World’s Fair, he started the Delany/Glatzer advertising agency and continued that company until the 1980s.

His opinions about movies were widely known across the region, as Glatzer served as the film critic for Spokane Public Radio KPBX.

Born and raised in New York City, Glatzer formed a passion for cinema that led him, in 1964, to start his own film production company that made numerous industrial films and TV commercials.

The Smithsonian Institution hired Glatzer in the early 1970s to begin filming folk festivals in Washington, D.C. That connection brought Glatzer to Spokane to make a film during Expo 74. He ended up being the person in charge of cultural events during Spokane’s World’s Fair.

He taught directing and film criticism at area colleges and continued writing about film. Most of his recent reviews can be found on the website he ran, Movies101.com.

He also was founding director of the Spokane International Film Festival.

Glatzer also wrote two books, “The New Advertising” and “Beyond Popcorn: A Critic’s Guide to Looking at Films.”

His wife, Mary Ann Murphy, said plans for services are pending. The couple has three grown children: Nicholas, Jessica and Gabriela.